Ihamba Film and Research Project
Prepared with the Batwa of Kanungu District, Uganda
Forests shape the cultural, spiritual, physical, and emotional well-being of many Indigenous Peoples worldwide. For the Indigenous Batwa Peoples in Central and East Africa, this deep connection is reflected in their historical relationship with their high-altitude forest homelands. The Batwa's ancestral forests, known as ihamba (a Rukiga word meaning both "forest" and "home"), are central to their identity, spirituality, and social structures. This knowledge system, sustained over generations, supports Batwa livelihoods, including their use of medicinal plants and honey, and underpins their environmental stewardship.
In the 1990s, creation of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park for gorilla conservation led to the forcible eviction of the Batwa, effectively making the Batwa conservation refugees by denying them access to their forest home and traditional food systems. It remains illegal for Batwa to enter the forest, with severe penalties, including imprisonment and violence from wildlife authorities. The emotional and cultural toll of displacement is profound, as one community member said: “My brain is unsettled... right now, I cannot think straight without ihamba. There is nothing else I can think about in this world.”
Despite these injustices, Batwa continue to demand access to their ancestral forest as a fundamental Indigenous right. This demand has remained unmet despite numerous consultations with conservation groups and government agencies. Regardless, Batwa are determined to share their story on their own terms.
Cloudberry has worked side-by-side with Batwa since 2023 to create a documentary film that shares their experience as conservation refugees. Unlike traditional documentary projects where footage is often taken away and edited without participant involvement, Cloudberry projects embrace a co-creation process that, for this project, is rooted in deep partnership with the Batwa. Batwa collaborators were and are engaged throughout production and post-production, actively reviewing raw footage, shaping the story arc, and making key decisions about representation. At the end of the day, our interdisciplinary team brings together Batwa leaders, filmmakers, researchers, and regional experts to create a project that shares lived experiences with powerful visual storytelling to reclaim narrative agency and uplift Indigenous voices in conservation spaces.
To date, our collaborative project has led to over 50 video-recorded interviews, a 20-minute documentary, and partnerships with two Batwa-led organizations in the Kanungu District: Action for Batwa Empowerment Group and Empowering Vulnerable Communities. Today, we are working on further qualitative analysis, a distribution plan, and impact strategy to spread awareness of the damaging impacts of protectionist, fortress-based conservation approaches.
